echo
by Shamera
Summary: Ten years after the war between Cocoon and Gran Pulse, the Gods woke from their long sleep to purge the land of life. Humanity is vastly outmatched, until the l'Cie bring in an outsider to help. (Edge of Tomorrow inspired)
1. Chapter 1

_**echo_**_

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Noel Kreiss is eighteen when he first stepped foot on the grounds of a Cocoon enlistment camp on Gran Pulse. That's the day he first meets Serah Farron, petite and fierce in a way he had never before encountered. She is a nurse in the encampment, supposed to be, but her blue eyes are far heavier and older than anything he's ever seen before, and he grew up with Yeul, who cried herself to sleep because she could see the future. (Yeul stopped telling them what was to come long ago, years ago, after everything they did to change the future would only bring her more tears and pain as they made things worse somehow.)

"Noel," she greeted him, and he felt like he was hit with a wave of electricity, giving him goosebumps and seizing his muscles before he could reach automatically for his swords. How did she know his name? "My name is Serah. And you're here to sign up in the fight against the Gods."

He was, but she couldn't possibly have known that. She wasn't even supposed to welcome him. Noel had prepared himself to be laughed out of the camp, prepared to grit his teeth and dig his heels into the ground. Cocoon soldiers, he knew, underestimated Pulsians. The war between them the last decade had been nothing more than a joke to them — they practically won within two weeks, their distance weapons superior to swords and spears. While seasoned warriors could take on the machines, dozens of them at a time even, it didn't stop Cocoon from manufacturing more machines that would storm their lands and destroy their homes while they fought. Machines that often slaughtered children who tried to hide while the warriors were out attempting to fight the war. But those on Pulse were nothing if not stubborn, nothing if not persistent and angry. They were used to the planet being stronger than them, with monsters roaming around being stronger than them, with even their plantlife coming to life and attacking them. Despite Cocoon's brush off of Pulse, those who were used to surviving on a daily basis would prevail.

They continued the fight. Swore not to stop until every last breath was taken from every warrior, even if those vipers on Cocoon stopped bothering with them. The Pulse survivors banded together, different tribes and different governments, lying in wait until one day… one day the skies opened up from the amount of blood spilled into dirt, and the Gods woke from their long slumber.

If nothing else, the Gods proved that those on Cocoon had been nothing but kind.

Cocoon had been quick and merciless, yes, but their brutality had lasted merely two weeks before they stopped. The Gods residing in the skies created terrible creatures to battle them, creatures of twisted metal and crystals, of a power beyond what either world could imagine. The fal'Cies tore apart both Cocoon and Gran Pulse within a day, slaughtering millions. Cocoon, Noel learned on that day, at least had the common courtesy to only fight the tribes who fought back. The war between two human worlds had been a war of soldiers, even if dozens of children had been caught in the crossfire.

After the first day, the two worlds declared peace between them in fear of a greater enemy they had in common.

Yeul had died that night, not due to the attack but sometime in her sleep, finally succumbing to the burden of her visions. The day the Gods appeared, Noel lost everything: his grandmother, the rest of his tribe, Yeul, and even Caius when the man disappeared after Yeul's death the next day.

Cocoon would be the lesser of two evils, Noel understood. Yeul had whispered to him, the last words before she went to sleep that night, the only chance of surviving is if everyone works together. If they didn't, then all of mankind would perish within a week and their bones would be nothing but dust in the canyons.

"You'll be assigned to the Skyfall division." Serah told him as she gestured for him to sign his name on the glowing screen in her hands. She seemed entirely unconcerned with the strange looks the two of them were gathering as she guided him around the encampment, other pale Cocoon soldiers narrowing their eyes or whispering to each other in a manner that made Noel twitch his jaw and stand up straighter in defiance. "There's less than twenty six hours before the squadron departs, and you're going to have to know how to operate the armor and machinery by then."

"I know how to fight." Noel told her then, harsher than he intended in response to the hostile feelings he was sensing from other soldiers.

Serah tucked a wisp of pink hair behind her ear and stared up at him, again with the strangely old eyes. "I know you can. But the technology here is delicate, and blowing up your comrades by accidents is not an option."

She stopped walking, and then turned to face him directly after accepting a small, pen-sized object from a passing nurse who then hurried away, passing the same object to several more people nearby. "I'm sorry. This must be very new to you. Here, hold out your hand."

He didn't really want to. The way she spoke, the way she moved, was something that made Noel think he was in way over his head. He had originally intended to sign up and fight, to bear the humiliations until he proved he was a better soldier than them, a better warrior. He was there to fight the fal'cie, fight the Gods, not listen to a petite woman who had eyes like Yeul's and definitely knew more than she let on. He was here to avenge his loved ones, not make friends with the enemy. (Because Cocoon was a nest of vipers, Noel was taught growing up, just waiting for the right opportunity to strike.)

As if already knowing he was be unwilling, Serah reached out for his wrist and pressed the pen-like object against his skin before he could pull away, her reflexes sharp and fast. He hissed and yanked his hand back when he felt a pinch.

"Inoculation." She explained to him, and showed him her own palm where there was still a small red circle in the middle. "Everyone has to get it. The fal'Cie spread a sort of… disease around. Without it, you'd fall before you can even draw your weapon."

"How do you even know that?" Noel demanded, rotating his wrist to glare at the small red circle over his veins. There couldn't have been enough time for those on Cocoon to create an inoculation, could there? How did they even know about the disease? He hadn't known, and he had been there during one of the attacks. His heart was pounding in his chest, exploding again and again, his imagination throwing him into scenario after scenario where the shot was poison, where he was being brainwashed into some weird Cocoon doctrine, where...

This time, she placed her hand over his raised one, and he felt a shock unlike the previous pinch. This one was caused by the warmth of her skin, creating goosebumps even as he raised his eyes to meet her old, old ones.

"You'll understand in a little while, I promise. Sleep first, and then Dr. Estheim will explain everything to you."

To his growing horror, Noel felt his vision grow dark, felt his legs giving out from underneath him. He wanted to shout at the woman, wanted to demand to know what she did, but couldn't draw the energy.

"I'm sorry. This might be the last peaceful rest you'll get in a long while."

That was the last thing he heard before darkness claimed him.

—

When he woke again he was resting against a pile of crates and people were shouting around him, clearly in a panic. Noel jerked awake with a start, immediately alert to the chaos around him as mechanized beasts and machines stomped past along with the armored foot soldiers and a siren blared over his head.

"All soldiers to your stations." A female voice announced calmly over the large speakers above him. "Outer perimeter has been breached. Four minutes till hostiles in range. Repeat, four minutes till hostiles in range."

Noel pushed himself to his feet, feeling just the slightest bit unsteady even as he snagged a running soldier who nearly tripped over him. "What's going on?"

"Don't you have ears?" The soldier (a girl, he realized by the voice, since the armor gave no indication of gender) snapped at him. "The fal'Cie are heading this direction! Get suited while you can, man." She broke free of his hold on her and continued on, but not before giving him a curious and befuddled glare.

Noel stumbled back, confused with the chaos and more than a little resentful for the lack of details — he was here to fight with them, ready to put aside a decade long war and the prejudices he had grown up with (well, ready to _start_ putting it aside) — couldn't they give him at least a bit more of an explanation?

A hand snagged his and Noel drew his sword immediately, ready to fight, before seeing a young girl his age dressed not in the typical armor of Cocoon but in the furs and beads of Gran Pulse. She smiled widely despite the cacophony around them and gestured for him to come with her, before letting go of him and turning and dashing off, her steps spry and light around the army running around them.

"Wait a minute!" Noel called out as he followed her, scarcely managing to duck around a slim floating machine emitting green waves where it went. It was a relief to know he wasn't the only Pulsian here, and he grabbed on to that familiarity as he followed her. "Hey, wait!"

He could barely keep sight of her around all the people and machines, and it was lucky that she wore such bright pink colors, her bright hair and bared skin a beacon against the sea of dark metals and black armor. Noel stumbled around various people as he followed in her path, growing more and more frustrated by how easy it was for the girl to move around the place and how people moved around her like oil and water.

"Over here!" She called out when he almost lost her again, and waved to him from a bunker to his left. Noel hurried after her, glad to be away from the amount of things running around as he stepped into the bunker. The girl was already moving, stepping further in as his eyes tried to adjust to the sudden lack of light.

"Serah told me about you." The girl said, her voice light and lilting as if people weren't panicking right outside. "I'm Vanille. Oerba Dia Vanille. You're Noel, right?" But then she shook her head before he had the chance to respond with his questions. "Never mind — you can answer later. You need to get dressed first!"

He wanted to protest but wasn't given the time before she shoved him into a small cubicle and shut the door behind him.

"I'll be right back after you get dressed!" She told him cheerfully through the thin metal door, knocking on it once as if to emphasize her words. "Gotta take care of the fal'Cie coming at us first!"

"Wait, no, what's going on?" Noel demanded from inside the cubicle, ignoring the sleek dark armor waiting for him encased within the wall. He pounded on the cubicle door once, twice, and then finally decided he had _enough_ of this confusion and braced himself against the narrow walls before he kicked hard and broke down the flimsy metal door.

The girl — _Vanille_ — was nowhere in sight, but the sirens from outside finally stopped for one blessed moment. Noel was ready to breathe out a sigh of relief for his eardrums before the shouting started — the screaming and sounds of heavy gunfire freezing him up for a split second before he drew his swords and raced out the bunker.

The outside was an organized mess. Row after row of monsters and soldiers stood at the ready, with a heavy wall of machines at the very front firing everything they had at….

Noel gaped. Despite being attacked by them the day previous, he had yet to see a fal'Cie this close, not when he had been tasked by his grandmother with Yeul's protection when the invasion started. He got her as far away from all signs of fighting as he could, but still hadn't been able to save her.

This fal'Cie, he could see, was large. Very large. Bigger than any of the machines he had seen in this encampment, shrieking as it flew through the air. It looked like a metallic flying serpent, sleek and long with large segmented metals in shapes of skulls and beads for its tail.

At that very moment as Noel stood under the shadow of a single bead of the fal'Cie, he understood how it felt to be facing one of the soldiers of God.

"And here we go!" Came a familiar cheerful voice, startling him out of his reverie. He looked over to see Vanille with her arms raised, holding on to a strange contraption (a hunting assistant, he recognized faintly from textbooks, from Oerba) before she launched long barbed wires at the fal'Cie, dozens of meters into the air to hook on the metal skin and pull it down. "Go, Fang!"

With a loud battle cry, another woman next to Vanille (another Pulsian!) used her spear to launch herself off the ground and jumped an impossible distance onto the fal'Cie, bringing the end of her spear down into it's metal back and causing it to thrash and scream.

"Now!" Came a young male voice from behind him, and several of the large machines fired all at once right through the metal holding the three smallest beads for the fal'Cie's tail on, causing it to break off even as the warrior of God screamed in the sky. "One more!"

Again, another choreographed string of explosions, and one more bead came off, crashing down to the ground with the string of metal it was carrying.

By then, the fal'Cie had broken free of both the spear and the wires, and the Pulsian woman (Fang?) jumped off to land gracefully on one of the fallen beads, the smallest already easily much larger than her. She waved at someone else, entirely unimpressed by the fal'Cie writhing above her in the sky. "Your turn, hero!"

Noel continued to watch, stunned, as a man lept from the watchtower at the edge of the encampment, followed by a woman who looked a great deal like Serah, and the two of them managed to wrestle the fal'Cie still once more for the machines to fire off another round and sever more of its tail. More coordinated strikes like that, and minutes later the large creature crashed down to the earth with only one bead left in its tail, transforming into looked like a dragon with human arms and claws for fingers, numerous immovable metal wings upon its back, it's form still larger than the largest building in the encampment.

It dug its claws into the ground and shrieked, a terrible sound that caused many of the soldiers to cry out as they tried to cover their ears. Noel followed as well, gritting his teeth as the sound reverberated through his bones, feeling like it was trying to reach to the very depths of his bone marrow. He looked up immediately, though, as the noise was interrupted by gunshots and the smell of ozone.

_Magic._ Very, very strong magic, by his senses.

Where at the beginning of the battle it had been Vanille standing in the middle of the open space to draw in the fal'Cie, now there were six people. He watched them fight together in awe, their movements fluid and perfectly timed against each other. Where one would move to strike, another would immediately follow up to leave the fal'Cie no time at all to recuperate. The creature, the monster, was blocked in constantly by a wall of ice, by strikes of lightning and left disoriented by mighty gales of wind feeding blazing flames. Slowly, bit by bit, Noel watched as the great beast, the warrior of God, tired and died.

The skin of his hands itched where it gripped his sword, tense with a need to be part of that battle — to move as that group did, all synergy and power. This was what he wanted, he thought with excitement. This is what he imagined when Yeul had told him about Gran Pulse and Cocoon working together, taking down Gods.

Noel would never be able to forgive Cocoon for the war, but he could look past it so long as they had a common enemy. Cocoon had never touched the Farseer tribe, but he had heard horror stories nonetheless. Not a week ago, he never would have believed that residents from both worlds would be able to come together in a fight like this. Now that he was seeing it, was hearing the dying wails of the fal'Cie, Noel wanted nothing more, _nothing more,_ than to be a part of a group like that. It didn't matter if more than half the group looked like Cocoon residents. It was the trust inherent in each and every action, in every spell and strike of a weapon, knowing that someone else had their back.

Noel had fought many times before. Beyond counting and beyond what he could remember, even, but he had never fought with a group like that before. Training with Caius had been so different — he wasn't allowed to trust anyone else in a fight.

It was the pink-haired woman who looked so much like Serah who laid the final blow, twisting in midair with her sword to pierce through the face of the fal'Cie, digging her blade far into the gears of its skull.

The body of the fal'Cie fell heavily to the ground now that the creature was dead, and many of the soldiers in the front ranks started running. Noel had to duck several paces away as the giant clawed hand landed nearly on top of him, instead smashing into a crate not three feet away from where he was standing.

He barely heard the cry of, "Noel, _move_!" before he registered the small round objects spilling from the smashed container next to him, several of them dented and damaged and crushed beyond repair. Some look like their been split in half, others merely… disassembled.

Then there is the sound of an explosion, and intense pain, and nothing.

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Noel jerked awake, his head pillowed against a pile of crates.

It's absolute chaos around him: people running to and fro while the metal speakers above inform him of the situation. He gets up shakily, lingering phantom pains all over his body for a few seconds like the remnants of a dream. He has to clench his fists several times to shake off the pain of shrapnel, and then is almost bowled over by a stranger who runs just a little bit too close.

He feels disoriented, nauseous. _Was that all a dream?_

Except seconds later there's a hand wrapped around his wrist and he comes face to face with a Pulsian girl, smiling at him and gesturing him to follow her.

_Vanille,_ he recognizes. He follows, this time more conscientious about where he steps, weaving around the crowd like she does, feeling as if his feet know where to go even when she disappears from his sight several times. He sees her at the bunker again, and this time doesn't wait for her to call out before he slides in with her, now aware enough that he wanted answers.

"Vanille." He greeted her, feeling a bit uneasy with how casually he was addressing her. But she and Serah were the only two to have introduced themselves to him so far, and they already knew who he was… "What just happened?"

Vanille paused, and then beamed brightly at him, the expression out of place with the sirens blaring outside. "Oh good!" She exclaimed, hands clapped together in front of her. "So Serah was right about you. What do you remember last, Noel?"

_What?_

He remembered pain. An explosion. A very large one, he wanted to say. Confusion. He remembered the darkened metallic hand of the fal'Cie, it's claws curled toward the sky, resting above a crate of broken spheres.

"…An explosion." He finally admitted.

Vanille looked sympathetic, green eyes gentle even as she gestured for him to enter the same cubicle she pushed him into the first time. "Well, you'll know what to avoid, then. I'll be right back after you get dressed — gotta take care of the fal'Cie coming at us first!"

With that, she bounded off, and Noel was left with the sharp feeling of deja vu. Just how often did fal'Cies attack this base, anyway? Just how long had he been out? Why had he woken up outside like that? How come he wasn't injured at all?

Noel took a moment this time to sit down in the cubicle, staring at his palm even as his flexed his fingers. Something just didn't add up, didn't feel right. The words spoken over the speaker were the exact same, and even Vanille's phrase was too similar. He wasn't in the slightest bit injured. Maybe that was a dream, then? The past few minutes, that was. Maybe he had dreamed the past few minutes up and... no, that didn't make sense. Then how would he have known Vanille, and where she would lead him?

He glanced up at the outfit embedded within the wall, the black armor sleek and new. He still didn't know how to put that on — the material looked strange, and there were no openings that he could make out. Too constraining.

Vanille was from Gran Pulse. From what he remembered, he saw another women dressed in the tribal wear of his world as well. That meant he wasn't the only one who thought to join with the enemy... former enemy now. That was good. It meant that he wasn't alone in this situation, strange as it was. And from the fighting he had seen earlier, both Vanille and the other… Fang, were quite amazing warriors. Not to mention, it looked like they knew what they were doing. Maybe he could ask them to teach him what they knew afterward. He could…

He clenched his hands into fists, feeling the residual thickness in his chest as thoughts of his tribe came up. They had grown small in number, yes, but he hadn't expected — hadn't —

The grief was tangible, recalling Yeul's tearful face. He remembered his grandmother calling out for him to run, to protect the Seeress, to do as she said no matter what. He remembered running; just… picking Yeul up and not looking back, feeling her small fingers trembling against the back of his neck even as she pressed her face against his shoulder and cried. He remembered screaming for Caius along the way, feeling angry and betrayed when he couldn't find the Guardian anywhere. He remembered finding a small cave in the mountains, finally and reluctantly setting Yeul down only to have his breath catch when he looked back to where his village had been.

Nothing but flames. The entire landscape had been red and hot, black smoke swirling into open skies. How could he have possibly missed that heat while running? Nothing could have survived that. Not man, not animal, not so much as a blade of grass.

He shook his head, slapping his cheeks with his palms once to throw off the memories. This was no time for things like that. Grieving could come later. First he had to make sure —

The firing of heavy weapons broke him out of his reverie completely, and Noel stood stiffly from the cubicle, once again foregoing the uniform to make his way out of the bunker… carefully, this time. From what he remembered, the people here were organized enough that they didn't immediately need help with fighting a fal'Cie… and that was something Noel wanted to learn. To be organized like that, to fight with others…

He raced outside once again, stopping in his tracks as he saw the familiar line of machines, the soldiers, the tamed beasts and artillery. There were even the familiar metallic beads on the ground, scattered from where they dropped from the sky. Looking up, Noel wondered for a moment if all fal'Cie were supposed to look the same, because this one sure looked like —

The people fighting it was familiar as well, their moves synchronized and predictable to Noel's eyes. No, not predictable. They were the _exact same moves._ He had been entranced last time he saw it, trying to memorize everything they did to the point where he nearly forgot his own surroundings and the danger he might be in just from being too close to the fight.

This was — this couldn't be the same fight, could it? Even if they were fighting a tried and true method to take down the enemy, there would at least be some sort of inconsistency. A difference in jump height, a shot that went slightly astray, an extra punch or kick or…

He tore his eyes away from the fal'Cie in the sky and the six people performing what looked like a miracle, and shifted his attention to the crate he was standing next to. Undamaged. Still, if this meant that those six would be able to take out the fal'Cie, then he had another thing to do because they certainly didn't need his help in that battle.

He didn't stop to think on it further, instead steadying his feet against the dirt and bracing his shoulder against the pile of crates, pushing at first tentatively to estimate the amount of pressure needed, and then heavily as it refused to budge. He looked up at the fight before and above him, trying to gauge just how much time he had before the last strike would land, and shoved again at the immoveable wall.

Inch by inch, the crates started to give way, and Noel gritted his teeth even as he kept his attention on the fight — on the familiar moves as he tried to recall just how far he would have to move this weight before it would be in the clear. Slowly, slowly…

As the pink-haired woman landed the finishing move, Noel dove out of the way of the collapsing fal'Cie, rolling on the ground to ensure his distance before he drew his sword and impaled it into the ground in front of him as a flimsy shield just in case —

He looked up, and breathed out an inaudible breath of relief to see that the monstrous clawed hand missed the dangerous crate by mere inches. That was too close.

"Good job," came the familiar voice, this time behind him. The same voice who tried to warn him away last time. Noel looked up to see Serah smiling down at him, having abandoned her casual outfit for the same black armor that the rest of the soldiers wore. Her pink hair was still telling, though, soft and wavy as it slid over her shoulder. She offered a hand, while he took gratefully to stand up, and said, "I guess this is still early for you were pushing it like that. See this?"

Serah stepped around the giant monstrous claw, and gestured for Noel to come and see what she was pointing to: a small button near the bottom of the crates, inconspicuous and nearly hidden from the later of dirt kicked up when Noel forcibly moved it. "That's how we get these things around. Press once and it will lift off the ground. Press again and it sets itself down."

She demonstrated quickly, and Noel watched with a vague sense of irritation (what had all that effort been for, then?) as the heavy crates lifted and hovered in mid-air before Serah dropped them down again.

Serah looked pensive. "If you didn't know about that yet, then I guess I still have to explain a lot to you."

—

"Who do you know here?" Serah asked him as she led them past the clean-up crew of soldiers, waving them on as some stopped to salute to her. "Because we mostly assume you know everything already unless you ask."

"But I don't know anyone here," Noel responded in confusion. He barely knew her name, after all, and Vanille's. "I just got here today." He wove his way past several soldiers who might have parted for Serah, but didn't do so for him.

Serah stopped for a moment before reaching another bunker, this one much sturdier than the one he had been led to by Vanille. It didn't look temporary, for one, but rather like the middle of the entire base. The heart to protect at all costs. "It can't be your first… you knew about the explosives. Your second?"

"What are you talking about?"

Serah held a hand to her chin in contemplation, but then shook her head after a moment. "It'll be easier to explain with the others. You must have met Vanille? She was supposed to help you into your suit, but…"

Noel drew back defensively under the girl's disapproving stare, clearly meant for the lack of black armor he had on. "I met her. She—" He wilted slightly in remembrance. "She said she'd get back to me after the battle." Maybe he should have stayed in the first bunker, after all.

Serah giggled behind a hand. "Don't worry about it. If she doesn't find you there, she'll come straight here. She knows how this thing works."

_This thing?_ Noel wanted to ask, but Serah was already busy entering a complicated code into a holographic screen right next to the heavy metal gate of the bunker. The door slid open with an accommodating sound, and she didn't waste any time entering. Noel had to scramble to follow her fast and extremely precise footsteps before the metal doors slid closed behind him.

"If it's still early for you, there are a few tests for you to take. Next time, you can just tell us the results and you won't have to take the tests again." Serah continued as Noel examined the pristine white halls they were walking through, the ceiling perfectly curved and interjected with small round white lights. There was an elevator at the end of the hall, and Noel felt unnerved at just how empty and sterile the place was. With the amount of people outside in the encampment, he expected it to be more… crowded.

"I'm sorry." Serah told him softly as they waited for the elevator and Noel tried to digest just what was going on, taking in the cold and austere surroundings. "This has to be really confusing for you. The same thing happened to me, but… it's been so long for me that I don't even remember how I must have felt the first time."

"You keep saying that." Noel said, doing his best not to show his unease. "First time, second time… what are you talking about?"

She leaned slightly against the white wall in thought, crossing one ankle over the other as she hugged her arms around herself. It took a moment before she hummed thoughtfully. "Have you been feeling like… the same things keep happening over and over?"

"The fight." Noel observed immediately. The speakers, the sirens, the same words being said… but it felt almost like he dreamed and then woke up knowing what was going to happen.

Serah nodded. "It all started… ten years ago. At least, ten years for everyone else. Hope could explain it better, but…" she shrugged. "He might not have the time. We're all deploying tomorrow, and he's got a lot on his hands."

The pink-haired woman took a deep, steadying breath even as Noel waited. "Anyone else would tell you about just how classified all of this is, but we don't really have the time and it doesn't matter in the end. Ten years ago, we found the first remnants of a… a Pulse fal'Cie on Cocoon. That was our first encounter with them, and that's why everyone receives inoculations now, because we found out what they could do then."

Noel rubbed at his wrist, looking down at the still slightly swollen red circle.

"Back then, we didn't know about what they were, or what they wanted. A group of people got too close to it and were… infected." Serah gave him a weak smile. "Ever since then, we've been developing methods to fight against this _infection_, so that it wouldn't happen to anyone else. It took us nearly ten years, but… we finally figured it out."

"What happened to those people?" Noel asked, wondering just how bad this disease was.

She shook her head. "A lot. Too much. But that's not really my story to tell."

The elevator door opened then, and they both stepped in, Noel tensing at the glaring lights within. It didn't feel right, didn't feel natural. Nothing was this bright. Serah didn't seem the least bit perturbed as she pressed several buttons once again on the holographic panel, and the door slid closed after them, the elevator coming to life as they descended.

"What's happening to you now, if I'm right about this," Serah told him, "is what happened to me. It started — yesterday, for you. When the Gods first awoke and came to wipe us out."

Her eyes unfocused, and her features slackened to a sad frown. "The first time, they killed everyone within hours. Crashed Cocoon straight into Gran Pulse and wiped out all life on both worlds."

...But that wasn't what happened. Noel swallowed, wondering if he really wanted to ask, "First time?"

Serah nodded. "And then I woke up. The very same morning the Gods came, hours before we got the first sign. I thought it was a dream… I think. Then it happened again. And I woke up again. Again and again. I didn't know what was happening. I tried to change something every time after I woke up… _did_ manage to change something. Each time, I told someone else, made sure they took different actions… but it barely helped."

She turned bright blue eyes in his direction, and he thought for a moment that he could see an unnatural glow from them. "It took me over four hundred tries before I managed to save all the people important to me, and then I stopped counting. I've lived the past day for… years, at least, before I managed to find a solution to minimize the casualties. Before we managed to get a fighting chance. I knew what everyone would say to me before they said it, I knew all their reactions to different things that would happen to them. I knew who would believe me and who would need a demonstration. I knew every path to take, every path that failed before we finally found a way to survive the battle you must have seen yesterday. But for some reason, even if we survive to here… I always woke up again, same as before. I just couldn't understand it. Didn't know why.

"Not until we saved you the first time. Then, for some reason, time _continued,_ and it kept going on, all the way until you were deployed with unit Skyfall and everyone died again." Serah closed her eyes, bringing a hand to her forehead. "I survived, but still woke up again to do it all over. It took me a really long time… too long, really, to figure it out."

The elevator stopped, and the doors opened.

"There you are!" Vanille's cheerful voice interjected, and Noel saw her wave at the two of them before skipping over from where she had been standing with the other Pulsian woman in the room before. "I looked for you two, you know? What took you so long?"

"Sorry, Vanille." Serah said before Noel could question anything. She smiled as the other girl took her hands. "We have some explaining to do. Noel doesn't know what's going on yet."

Vanille's mouth opened to a questioning 'o', turning her attention to him. "Really? But you knew who I was before I said anything!"

"It's still early for him." Serah explained.

"Is that so?"

Noel shifted his attention to the other pink-haired woman he had seen earlier, fighting with the rest of the group. The one who delivered that finally blow, he thought faintly with wide eyes. It was what finally made him study just who were in this room down at the bottom of the bunker. This… everyone who had been in that fight was here.

"Noel," Serah said, leaning to get his attention even as she smiled. "Let me introduce you to everyone. You already know Vanille, of course." Vanille gave a smile and waved. "This is my sister — Lightning. Over there is Snow, my fiance. The one sitting next to him on the couch is Sazh, and the one standing next to them is Fang."

Snow gave a two fingered salute from his brow, grinning widely at him, while Sazh nodded congenially. Fang gave no indication she was listening at all.

"And…" Serah stopped, eyes scanning the room before she huffed. "Hope, stand up! He can't see you over all your computer monitors, you know?"

There was an exasperated sound in response, and Noel saw a young boy with silver-white hair peek over the line of technology in the middle of the room. "…Hi."

Serah sighed loudly, drawing Noel's attention again. "Don't mind him, he's always too busy for everything. But we're going to explain whatever we can to you this time, so you're prepared next time."

Noel swallowed hard. Back to business, then. "Next time?"

"Yup." Vanille told him from his other side. "You're just like Serah, don't you know? We're going to be relying on you to tell us what _not_ to do."

The mere thought made him queasy. Sure, he had grown up with Yeul and he understood the idea of seeing into the future, but… what Serah had told him, what she said with that forlorn expression on her face… he didn't know how to react to that. To live one day over and over and over again, trying to find some way to get to the next day…

Serah looked sad as she watched the emotions cross his face. "I'm sorry," she told him, "But it's up to you now. If you run out of resets, then I go back again as well. That must have been what happened every time I woke up again whenever I finally got to this point. So we're taking precautions this time. I… I don't know what will happen when I run out."

He couldn't fathom it. The idea of being able to live one day over and over… and now he would have to worry about running out of time, as well?

_Of course,_ was the realization. _If we have the same ability, then each time Serah goes back, it must mean I've failed… hundreds, thousands, of times already. Every single time. _

It was an intimidating thought. Beyond intimidating.

Vanille gently led him to a seat while Noel reeled at the implications, patting him on the arm even as she used the other arm to sweep the files and small gadgets that had been occupying the seat onto the floor.

"It's okay to take some time to get used to it." She told him. "The rest of us still don't really get what's happening. To us, Serah woke up yesterday and just knew what was going to happen. She said she got used to it, so you will, too."

"This isn't happening to you guys?" Noel asked, bewildered. He sat heavily in the makeshift chair, eyes darting to the pile of items now scattered on the ground. It was a strange mess in this too sterile room.

Vanille shook her head. "Nope. We're just going along for the ride."

"But how…?" Noel shook his head. "You guys knew how to fight that fal'Cie. That was—" _Magic._ Power. Beyond anything he had ever seen before, even growing up with Caius around. Caius had been the epitome of power for Noel growing up; the man was fast and strong with the brute magic to topple the greatest of beasts on Gran Pulse. But even that power seemed rather pale in comparison to what he had seen in the fight minutes ago.

Vanille darted her eyes to the others, and it was Serah's sister — Lightning — who answered instead, lips a stern line. "Might as well. He won't ask again if he already knows." She nodded to him, arms folded under her chest. "We were the group who fought off the fal'Cie ten years ago. So we've fought and killed them before."

"You?" Noel asked incredulously, shaking his head. It might begin to explain the level of power, but... weren't the group who encountered that first fal'Cie infected in some way? "Not to be insulting, but… that was ten years ago, right?"

Most of them barely looked old enough to be adults. The kid sitting behind the monitors, _Hope,_ most certainly_ didn't._

"The… infection," Serah said, her words careful. She had her fingers laced together in front of her, stepping to stand closer to a now quiet and serious Vanille. "Stopped our aging. Because of it, we won't be able to live out the rest of our lives until we defeated the God who created the fal'Cie that… infected us."

Noel thought the set-up seemed rather useful. They wouldn't age, would be more powerful (from what he had seen)…

"We need your help." Vanille told him, hands on Serah's shoulders. "You're the only way we can win this war. Without all of us working together… I don't think we'll be able to last the week."

_The only chance of surviving is if everyone works together._

Yeul's words echoed through his head, bringing up a surge of emotions he had to physically shake off.

"Okay." He told them, feeling both uncertain and so absolutely sure about what he was supposed to do that he couldn't wrap his head around the feeling. It was a strange gnawing at the pit of his stomach, both reassuring and debilitating. He wanted to trust them. It could be exactly why he was here, exactly what Yeul wanted him to do. "What do you need me to do?"

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* * *

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**A/N:** Okay, so this was just an idea that wouldn't leave, since I'm really excited about the movie coming out next week. Take it as a oneshot AU _idea_? I currently have way too many ideas floating in my head right now, so this one most likely won't be continued. It's just one of those things I would love, love, love to read... but don't know if I can write. ^^;; Honestly, I just want to see Noel kick ass and take names with the rest of them.


	2. Chapter 2

_**echo_**_

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They called Lightning Farron a lot of different titles. Only her friends called her by name, Noel grew to understand, while other soldiers addressed her Colonel and saluted and then whispered about the Angel of Valhalla, the Warrior Goddess, the moment her back was turned. And even then, he was given to understand that even 'Lightning' wasn't her real name. It was just the name everyone use.

"Don't worry about it," Serah told him several times with hesitant smiles. It took Noel quite some wheedling to learn that it was Lightning who slaughtered the majority of the fal'Cie the day of the invasion. Dozens, Vanille whispered to him. While the rest of the team worked hard together to bring one down, Lightning would be off bringing down another, and then another, and then another.

It had been an exceptionally bloody day.

She was a caustic woman whose words were sharper than her sword, who preferred the train with Oerba Yun Fang, preferred to be surrounded by training simulations rather than her fellow ally soldiers (so long as the soldiers weren't the core group). From what Noel could tell, Colonel Lightning Farron had no patience for anyone other than the small group of... (L'Cie, Serah whispered to him once, close to his ear as if she were afraid someone else would overhear. She didn't explain what it meant, but her expression was enough for Noel to understand he wasn't to repeat the word around) people she fought with.

And even within the group, there were only two people who received her patience and casual tenderness.

"Ever shot with one of these before?" Sazh Katzroy asked him casually as the older man loaded the guns in his hands, movements fluid as water while the two of them stood before a table filled to the brim with different armaments. Noel shook his head, feeling queasy. He didn't like the guns Cocoon people wielded. It was cold, cruel, and far too apathetic. He was a hunter, taught all his life to appreciate the life that ended due to his tribe's need for food, taught to respect the creatures who challenged him, who wounded him. Scars are trophies, Noel had been taught, the map of a life that indicated perseverance and experience. To fight a creature, to fight an enemy, was to reach out and feel their strength between the gaps of his fingers — to feel their speed in the wind of his hair. Even those with bows and arrows had to fight, had to scramble and run when half a dozen arrows would not pierce through thick hides.

A gun, however... he had seen how just one bullet could potentially bring down an animal. How a man could stand dozens of paces away, unseen even, and kill without acknowledging the strength of his enemy. The creature would never be able to fight back, never acknowledge defeat to a warrior greater than it.

On a general basis, Noel disliked guns.

"No." He told the other man simply. "And I don't want to."

"And that's alright," Sazh replied back casually, surprising him. "Odds are, you might never need to. Hell, it'd be great if you never had to. You stick to what you know best, that's my motto. But then, there may be the off chance when one of these might save your life and on that off chance, I'm going to teach you how to shoot one of these things correctly - into the enemy, and not accidentally into your own foot."

It was a compelling argument, and Noel resigned himself to listening as Sazh pulled apart several of the guns, explaining parts, explaining what went where and why, explaining the difference in clips and bullets and what fit where. Thinking upon it, he thought it just the slightest bit strange that this man was the only one to use a gun.

"It's because half of us aren't fighters." Sazh answered his unasked question, sliding together one of the guns and handing it to Noel, handle first. "Don't worry — safety's still on for this one, and it fires nothing but duds, anyway. We're going to test your aim and how you handle the backfire, not get other people killed."

Noel accepted the gun gingerly, but couldn't help the distaste in his expression at the feel of cold metal within his fingers. "...Thanks."

"No problem." The older man said with a shrug. "You wanted the story with us, right? Best you get it first time around, anyway. That way there's no awkward misunderstandings next time, and we won't have to explain it again."

"You really believe that I'm just going to — relive all this over and over again?" Noel asked, lowering his arm. He could still feel the weight of the gun, though. "That's a lot of strange you're just accepting."

"You would too, if you wake up to Serah telling you just how many different ways you can die in a day. And then she tells me everything I'm going to say, everything I was going to ask or do." Sazh shrugged. "You'll probably be able to do that with us soon. After that, well, we're used to strange. It's not really all that weird once you're used to it. The new normal, even."

Noel wasn't sure he wanted that to be his new normal.

"Either way," Sazh continued. "We've learned to roll with the cards we're dealt. We'll all get through this, one way or another."

They spent the next hour in a side room, Sazh dialing into a speaker system and asking Hope to activate several of the training programs Lightning liked to use. Noel was taught to familiarize himself with handguns, rifles, shotguns, semi-automatics, and all the range they had with heavyset solid bullets to energy beams.

"You don't have to use it," Sazh routinely told Noel whenever the teenager looked sick with himself. "But you'll have to carry it around. Better to be safe than sorry, after all."

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* * *

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After that, Vanille took him aside and gave him the run-down for the armor Cocoon soldiers used.

"We all have to wear it time to time," she said lightly even as she helped him strap the chest armor on, and then knocked on the solid piece. "It's not too bad. You won't even need my help the next runthrough."

"You guys didn't wear it for the fight," Noel grumbled, rotating his shoulder to find a more comfortable position. He wasn't used to the amount of fabric or the weight on his limbs. While it wasn't heavy, it was still an unsettling feeling.

Vanille smiled guiltily. "We didn't have the time. Besides, it was just our fight and it was just the one! We all wear this outfit when we're supposed to be leading the soldiers. Makes for good morale, that's what people say, when they can see those who wear the same thing winning against the enemies."

"Vanille." At that word, the both of them turned to see Lightning standing silhouetted against the open door of the bunker they were in, frowning at them. "Is he ready yet?"

"Almost!" Vanille called out cheerfully, and then tightened a strap that made Noel wince in protest. The Pulsian girl gave him a sympathetic smile and then returned her attention to Lightning. "He's all yours."

Noel felt his mouth dry. "You're going to be the one I train with?" He didn't mean for the end of the sentence to to break, but in the short time he spent on the base, just about everyone had expressed their awe of the soldier: strong, fast, cool, smart, and beautiful. Serah had informed him not to tell anyone else on the base about what he could do… just let them assume that he was being incorporated into their team somehow. Vanille backed up the story by clinging to him as much as she could, to emphasize just how attached she had grown to him.

"Let them think she's taken a shining to you." Serah told him. "And that's why you're with us all the time."

It was a strange thought, to suddenly be in the middle of all that attention, but Vanille shined in her role as she guided him around. She told him various stories of the group in the past ten years, and about growing up with Fang in Oerba. They were the first to encounter the fal'Cie, the first to be turned before they were whisked away to Cocoon and met the others.

"Everyone's been through a lot," she revealed without losing her cheer. "But the worst was a long time ago, and we've all moved on as much as we can. It's been a long time since we've had someone new come in."

"Why didn't you just come back?" Noel questioned her. "We were at war with Cocoon, why didn't you guys come back and just — explain everything to people? Help us?"

It was only then that the gleam in Vanille's eyes dimmed, and she put her hands on her hips and tilted her head, leaning closer as she cleared her throat and then said in a tone that made it very clear she was imparting important information, "It was never about Gran Pulse or Cocoon. It's always been about family."

She drew back after those words, regaining her cheer. "Besides, we did come back! We've been back plenty, actually, but it's not like the council wants to hear about us getting along with Cocoon. They'd rather stay angry because of what happened, so we stopped trying after a while."

That was right before she dragged him into the first bunker from before the fight with the fal'Cie, and insisted on teaching him more about the armor he was supposed to don.

Now, it was Lightning assessing him from where she stood several paces away, expression unreadable.

"Eighteen hours before we ship out," she finally told him, although Noel couldn't understand the significance of her words at that moment. "You'll be training with Fang until she says you're good enough to not be a liability. And then I'll take over your training."

"I'm not a liability." Noel interjected immediately, feeling a pulse of irritation run through his veins. Yes, they were amazing fighters and he could openly acknowledge that, but none of them (except maybe Serah) had ever seen _him_ fight before!

"Fang will decide that." Lightning told him, and then left him and Vanille in the bunker again.

Noel attempted to uncurl his fists, wanting nothing more than the chase after the soldier and demand that she allow him a chance to prove himself before immediately shuffling off as some low tier grunt. Deep down, he understood the need for all the tests, all the coddling, but above that was the raging turmoil of grief and anger and abject loneliness about being shoved into a situation where everyone else know each other, and he was the outsider.

Except he really was the outsider in this situation.

"Don't worry about her," Vanille told him gently, as gentle as Serah had been mere hours ago. "This is actually her giving you a chance. It means she likes you, really!"

"If that's the case, she sure doesn't show it well." Noel murmured, not meaning for Vanille to hear the words. She giggled anyway, and he let out a loud sigh even as he raised a hand to rub at the back of his neck. Better to know when he was defeated, anyway. He'd just have to show everyone what he could do, what he'd been trained to do since childhood. "Ah, it's not worth it."

"She'll figure it out soon enough, right?" Vanille concluded for him, and then pushed at his back to move him out of the bunker. "Don't worry, if that's the case, Fang's going to love you!"

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* * *

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It turned out Noel wasn't even to go up against Fang yet, but a simulation provided by Hope ("They call him Doctor Estheim around the base," Vanille whispered to him between simulations, "And we're supposed to as well, but I think only Lightning and Serah ever does it, and only sometimes.") that generated monstrous forms into the room Noel was, dozens of creatures that had two arms and two legs and the shape of heads but that was where the similarities to humanity ended.

"They're called Cie'th." Fang informed him helpfully from where she stood behind a bright yellow line, grinning at him. "And they're all over Gran Pulse now, yeah? They're the grunts we have to take out."

"I thought fal'Cie were the grunts." Noel shot back even as he tightened his grip on his swords, eyes narrowing in thought as he tried to see through a pattern a movement. New monsters meant he didn't know their strengths and weaknesses. He would have to tread carefully the first time until he figured out these strange beings.

"Oh, hey are." Fang laughed out. "But these things? These're what happens to people around the fal'Cie who don't get their shots from Drs. Serah and Hope!"

_Those are… people?_

One giant crystalline arm swiped at him, and Noel ducked into a roll, moving himself out of the way even as his tried to comprehend what he was just told. Now that he looked closer, he could see screaming faces stuck within the bodies, could see the giant red eye staring out at him.

"Now aint'cha glad that's what everyone here gets first thing?" Fang called out. "Imagine having to fight hundreds of these things while you're ducking the attentions of a fal'Cie!"

Noel darted out from one of the monstrous forms, using the heavy crystal bodies to launch himself into the air and bring his sword down heavily onto the torso of one of the monsters, shouting in triumph as the metal managed to pierce through the crystal skin. Harder shell, then, but just the same as all other beasts on Gran Pulse.

The roar of pain caught him off guard even when it shouldn't have, but it was mostly because Noel had a hard time seeing the creatures as… animals, he supposed. As things that might feel pain like the creatures that resided upon the plains of Gran Pulse. Despite that they moved, he had a hard time categorizing them as living beings.

The Cie'th moved, swatted at him, forcing Noel to withdraw before it could toss him to the ground. He left his large sword buried in the crystal of the being's back, and brought up his short sword defensively, holding it in place with one hand to more effectively stab than slash, the other hand bracing himself off the ground, ready to push off into a quick dash.

"This what you train yourself on?" Noel called out to Fang as he pushed himself off the ground, running toward one of the attacking Cie'th and then whirling in a circle at the last moment, slashing at thick crystalline skin even as he ducked past its movements, jumping up to grab onto the handle of his sword and yanking it out of the still screaming wounded Cie'th.

"Kid, this is what I have for breakfast." Fang taunted. "You're not at training yet! And don't you worry your pretty little head, I'm not pulling out any stops here. Serah said you'll be fine even if you die, so you can consider this a lesson."

"What?" Noel exclaimed, even as he grunted as one of the Cie'th (with _wings_, damn it) managed to slash him across the back, leaving him dazed by the pain because _this was real, this wasn't just a hologram, wasn't just some weird technology Cocoon developed_ —

"Pay attention now!" Fang called to him even as Noel ducked out of the way right into the path of another Cie'th that was raising its giant arms to smash at him. "Because this isn't a game, you know. For you, this is going to be life and death."

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* * *

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It took him thirty nine minutes to defeat the group of Cie'th. Noel knew this only because Fang clucked her tongue at him afterward and nodded to the timer up near the ceiling which had been running from the very first moment the creatures appeared.

"You could use some work with your reaction time." She told him bluntly, grinning at his glare. "And your magic. Not cut out to be a healer, are you?"

"Sazh said," Noel panted out and paused, lifting one bloodied arm from where it was resting on his knees to wipe away at the trail of blood still running from his nose which had only minutes ago been broken. "He said most of you guys weren't warriors."

And despite the battle he had seen earlier, Noel had been inclined to believe the older man for some reason. Maybe because he hadn't seemed the type to lie, or maybe because of the way the man laughed and invited him for lunch 'away from that group of crazies — they'll have your head spinning in no time, and I should know!'

"Old man would be right," Fang agreed as she finally walked into the training room. She spent that past session just leaning against the doorway with one leg over the other and her arms crossed, flinging comment after comment about what he was doing wrong and what needed improvement. She walked up to him, and rested the sharp point of her staff against the ground, waiting patiently until Noel finally looked up at her. "But I'll admit: you're not half bad. So where did you say you were from, Noel Kreiss?"

"I didn't." He said, and accepted her hand to help him up, grunting as his bones protested at the movement. But he wasn't a hunter just for the fancy title, and steadied himself the moment he was on his feet again. "I never even told any of you my name."

"Must have missed that detail." Fang said with a shrug. "Serah's very good with her plans."

"I'm from Paddra. Originally." Noel offered, but then shook his head, breathing out a heavy sigh and running fingers through his hair, attempting to undo the tangles that sweat and dirt had left behind. "It's all gone now."

Fang was quiet for a moment before she reached out and grabbed at his shoulder in a comforting gesture. It took Noel a moment to remember that Oerba was gone as well, that the Gods had laid waste to a good portion of the world already, as well as a good portion of Cocoon.

"We'll get those bastards." She told him, and then let go and stepped away. "So work hard, and you'll be on the team to get a front row seat at the end of the world."

"Hope," she called out to the empty room as Noel watched her warily. "Let's get a chimera in here, yeah? Start out with two, and we'll work our way up." To Noel, she said, "Congratulations. We're going to bump this into a training session now. Get ready for stage one."

Then she turned and started to walk away, waving a hand casually at him as a distant beeping came through.

"Wait," Noel called out, suddenly panicked. "Stage one, what do you mean?"

The doors slid closed behind her, and Noel barely made two steps before he could hear the hiss of serpents behind him. He turned slowly, ignoring the ache of his tired muscles, and saw two… creatures, slowly stalking up to him. Each had three heads, two which stood above the third like snakes playing at being horns. It was a beast unlike any he had ever seen before, more an amalgamation of beasts.

Warily, Noel brought up his swords, took a moment to assess his situation, and charged.

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* * *

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He woke up with a jerk on a pile of crates, the sirens blaring in his ears as a voice in the speaker system called for soldiers to assemble and the stomping of boots rang around him.

For a moment, Noel just lay there and mentally cursed Fang's name in every way he knew how.

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* * *

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**A/N:** Okay, I went to watch _Edge of Tomorrow_ on Wednesday and I really, really liked it. Didn't know until afterward that it was adapted from a manga which was adapted from a novel, but it makes sense because the storyline was really solid and the characters are well developed. It is leagues above the ideas I had for this story, but HELL, I have ideas for this story again. ^^;; Although this takes precedence far, far down the list since I really should be working on other stuff...


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